Re: cts 2.0 T faster than 3.6 0-60 .

They didn't test the 3.6 so they are just going off numbers that Motor Trend had for their 3.6 car. Pretty hard to actually compare that way. Really need to see a comparison between the same cars with just different engines unlike the AWD/RWD comparison Motor Trend did on the 2.0T AWD and 3.6 RWD. I drove the 2.0T CTS for a few weeks and am now driving one again and it's a damn nice engine though. At first I thought it was a bit underpowered in the CTS but that I think that was because I was coming from the 3.6 in the ATS and trying to compare. It definitely moves the car really well.

Re: cts 2.0 T faster than 3.6 0-60 .

Originally Posted by donavo

well in that case the 2.0T would really suffer because of turbo. and the 3.6 would do better. am i wrong? turbo relies more on air density than NA. does it not?

Other way around. At altitude the air is less dense and a turbo pressurizes air and makes it more dense again. although both suffer the turbo takes less of a hit. specially new turbos like ours that are torque managed which means the car will do anything including raising boost pressure to get the power and in the case of high altitude the turbo will work harder achieve power. While the NA has no way of compensating.

Re: cts 2.0 T faster than 3.6 0-60 .

Originally Posted by Johnm05

Other way around. At altitude the air is less dense and a turbo pressurizes air and makes it more dense again. although both suffer the turbo takes less of a hit. specially new turbos like ours that are torque managed which means the car will do anything including raising boost pressure to get the power and in the case of high altitude it will pump more air to achieve power. While the NA has no way of compensating.

if that was true, y do i always hear about cold weather being boost weather or good for the turbo weather or "more horsepower" weather? colder air is dencer so that leads me to believe that dencer air has a bigger plus on a turbo engine....

Re: cts 2.0 T faster than 3.6 0-60 .

Originally Posted by donavo

if that was true, y do i always hear about cold weather being boost weather or good for the turbo weather or "more horsepower" weather? colder air is dencer so that leads me to believe that dencer air has a bigger plus on a turbo engine....

Denser air is good for both Turbos and N/A however when the air is thinner a turbo car can compensate by working the turbos harder and the N/A has no way to compensate. Also say the Ambient psi is 2 less than at sea level (made up number) the turbo can also compensate the 2psi while the N/A can't.